THE Kaduna State Government has said that 32,297 tuberculosis cases were recorded in the state in 2023.
The state Commissioner for Health, Umma Kaltume-Ahmed, stated this at a press conference to mark the 2024 Tuberculosis Day on Thursday, March 28, in Kaduna.
Tuberculosis, caused by bacteria (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) and most often affecting the lungs, is spread through the air when people with lung TB cough, sneeze or spit.
According to the World Health Organisation, about 10 million people fall ill with tuberculosis (TB) yearly.
WHO noted that despite being a preventable and curable disease, 1.5 million people die from TB each year – making it the world’s top infectious killer.
Speaking on this year’s World TB Day, the commissioner said the commemoration with the theme, ‘Yes, We Can End TB,’ and the slogan, ‘No Gree For TB, Check Am O,’ was a follow-up call to the commitment made by global leaders at the 2020 United Nations high-level meeting on TB in New York.
This commitment, she said, was aimed at ending the TB epidemic by 2030 through supporting increased access to prevention, diagnosis, and treatment, sustainable financing, research, and ending stigma and discrimination against people with TB.
She also said TB case detection in the state had increased from 21,557 cases in 2022 to 32,297 in 2023, representing a percentage increase of 49.8 per cent.
According to her, the case detection rate in the state represented 159 per cent of the state TB case detection target.
She further stressed that the development showed a significant improvement in case finding compared to 53 per cent obtained in 2022, attributing this to the improved support the state TB programme received from the state government and the development partners.
While also highlighting that the global efforts to combat TB had saved about 66 million lives since 2000, Kaltume-Ahmed, said COVID-19 pandemic significantly affected the success rate.
Usman Mustapha is a solution journalist with International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: umustapha@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M